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What a crummy, crummy way to get her wish.

Matthew wondered how Ashley could stand so stoically still in the face of such a damn mess.

The second she’d told him she planned to come here, he’d known he would have to be there with her. For safety’s sake and for support.

Her chin quivered. Totally understandable. He’d expected just such a reaction. He hadn’t anticipated how her sadness would sucker punch him.

RICH MAN’S FAKE FIANCEE

12

CATHERINE MANN

SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1878

THE LANDIS BROTHERS

Matthew crossed his arms, trapping his hands so he wouldn’t reach for her. She eased past him, the sweep of her peasant top brushing against his arm. What did she have on underneath? His throbbing body begged him to discover the answer.

Odd how he’d never considered that practical Ashley might wear her merchandise. Her merchandise. How could he have been so focused on thoughts of getting Ashley naked that he momentarily forgot about the mess around them?

Clothing racks lay on their sides, having been tipped by the force of spraying water. Curled wisps of melted fabrics stuck to the floor and hangers. That same material could have melted to her skin.

Matthew heard a bell chime behind him, followed by Ashley’s chuckle. Her laugh rippled over his taut nerves, just as enticing as any slip. Damn. He was in trouble. “What did you find?”

Ashley reached inside the antique gilded cash register and pulled out a soggy stack of bills. “A few blasts with the blow-dryer and I’ll be solvent.”

Only Ashley could stand in the middle of a charred-out room, holding what probably amounted to a couple of hundred bucks and still manage a laugh.

He stepped deeper into the room. “So supper’s on you tonight.”

“Sure. I could probably afford to spring for burgers, if you don’t mind splitting the Coke?”

“How about I give you some money, just to tide you over?”

Her pride blazed brighter than their two flashlights combined. “I’ll be fine once the insurance check arrives. I don’t mind working off my deductible with sweat equity.”

“It’s a standing offer.”

“Thanks, but no.”

Matthew bit short a rebuttal. He could see she wouldn’t be budged. He would just find other ways around her counterproductive need for independence. “All right then.”

He followed her back down the hall, her gathered long hair swaying with each step baring a patch of her neck, and just that fast he started forgetting about the charred mess around them.

Until they reached her open bedroom door.

What if she’d been asleep in her bed when the fire started and he hadn’t returned? Being inside the dressing room could very well have saved her life.

His chest tightened, his breathing ragged. He braced a forearm against the fire-split molding. His arms trembled with the tension of bunched muscles as he fought the image of Ashley dead.

She made a slow spin around to face him again. “Well, you were right, Matthew. There’s not much I can do here for now. I feel better, though. Knowing the worst somehow makes it easier to go forward.”

“Right.” He only half registered her words, still caught in the hellish scenario of her stuck in this place while it burned.

Thank God she wasn’t his fiancée, someone like Dana who could wreck his world in a stopped heartbeat.

“I accept.”

Ashley’s words snapped him back to the present.

“Accept the money?” He was surprised, but damn glad. “Of course. How much do you need?” His eyes swept over her, unable to read her body language but sensing the tension coiling through her.

“Not that. I accept your, uh—” she chewed her lip “—your proposal. If you still think it will help your campaign, I’ll be your fiancée.”

Five

H e was engaged. Hell.

Matthew creaked back in the chair at his bustling campaign headquarters in Hilton Head. Even four hours after Ashley’s official acceptance, he still couldn’t believe she had actually agreed. He’d gotten his way, but still the whole notion had him itching with the same sensation that had urged him to get out of her place as quickly as he could after their night together.

He stared at the computer screen full of briefing notes in front of him, but it registered as vaguely as the ringing of telephones and hum of the copy machine outside his office.

Thumbing the edge of a shiny red and blue stack of “Landis for Senate” bumper stickers, Matthew wondered why the thought of even a fake engagement floored him so much. After all, he’d gotten exactly what he wanted from her. It wasn’t real like with Dana.

He just hadn’t expected Ashley to be so damn reluctant in her agreement. Okay, so yeah maybe his ego smarted a little. He was the one who wanted to keep his bachelor life.

Wouldn’t his brothers enjoy yucking it up over this mess?

A light tap sounded on his open door. He glanced up to find his campaign manager—Brent Davis—filling the opening.

“Are you getting enough sleep?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Matthew waved Brent to take the chair in front of the mahogany desk.

Older than Matthew by twenty years, the wiry manager had been an energetic force behind Matthew’s mother’s campaign and had acted as a consultant when Matthew ran for the House of Representatives. Brent had been the natural choice to head the campaign when Matthew made his decision to seek his mother’s vacated senatorial seat.

For the first time, Matthew wondered if he’d decided to push too hard, too fast, politically. He could have hung out in the House for another ten years or so and still been on track to run for the senate by the time he was forty. But he’d been so hell-bent on not letting go of the seat that started with his father before shifting to his mom. He’d worried that someone else might get a lock on the spot that couldn’t be broken.

Had his ambition pushed him to sacrifice anything—including an innocent person like Ashley?

Damn it all, he was doing this to help preserve her reputation. He’d made his decision and he wouldn’t hurt her worse by changing his mind and offering her a trip to the Bahamas to hide out until the frenzy died out. While yes, he could have handled the scandal, it would have been a hell of a lot more taxing on everyone in his campaign who had worked so hard to get him here.

Time to step up to the plate and be a man. He leaned forward on his arms, shirtsleeves rolled up, and looked Brent Davis square in the eye. “Ashley Carson and I are engaged.”

His campaign manager froze—no expression, no movement, not so much as a blink to betray his thoughts. Matthew knew from experience the guy only did that when he’d been tossed a curve ball that whacked him upside the skull. The last time Matthew RICH MAN’S FAKE FIANCEE

13

CATHERINE MANN

SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1878

THE LANDIS BROTHERS

had seen that look on Brent’s face, he’d gotten the news flash that Ginger Landis had decided to elope with her longtime friend General Hank Renshaw during a goodwill tour across Europe.

Finally, Brent templed his pointer fingers and tapped them against his nose. “You’re joking.”

“I’m serious.” Matthew straightened, unflinching.

One blink from Brent. Just one, but a fast flick of irritation. “You’re engaged to the mouse of a girl in the compromising photos.”

Anger blazed hot and fast. “Watch how you talk about Ashley.”

Brent’s eyes went wide. “Whoa, okay, take it down a notch there, big fella. I hear you loud and clear. You’re totally in lust with this female.”

“Davis…” Matthew growled his final warning.

Besides, the last thing he needed right now was to dwell on that night with Ashley, a train of thoughts guaranteed to steal what cool he had left at the moment. “She’s my fiancée, my choice, deal with it. That’s your job.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were dating her when those damning photos hit the news?” Brent flattened his palms on the desk. “You left me to spin one helluva nightmare with incomplete informati—Wait.” He leaned back with narrowed laser eyes. “This is one of those fake deals, isn’t it? The two of you are making this up to get the heat off.”

“I never said that,” he hedged, unwilling to expose Ashley to any more embarrassment.

“You need to be honest with me if I’m going to help you make it through the November elections on top.” Brent tapped the stack of bumper stickers with his pointer finger repeatedly for emphasis. “In fact, you should have told me before you proposed to her in the first place.”

On the one hand, Matthew could see his point. On the other, it seemed damned ridiculous—not to mention unromantic—to clear his bridal choice with his campaign manager first.

If he were really getting married. Which he wasn’t. But that was beside the point.

He wouldn’t sacrifice Ashley to the media hyenas just to win an election. In spite of all his competitive urges that totally agreed with Brent, Matthew couldn’t bring himself to say anything that might bring Ashley further embarrassment.

Something deep inside him insisted if he was the kind of man to abandon her, then he didn’t deserve to win. “Ashley and I were work acquaintances who were surprised to find there was something more. Call it a whirlwind romance in your press release.”

Brent nodded his head slowly, a smile spreading across his angular face for the first time since he’d entered the office. “If we put that out there to the media, then everyone will understand when the two of you decide to break off the impetuous engagement.”

“I never said that, either.”

“Damn it, Matthew—” his smile went wry “—I taught you how to use those avoidant answer techniques with the press back when your mother was running for office. Don’t think you can get away with using those same techniques on me.”

Why couldn’t he bring himself to close the office door and tell Brent the truth? It all came back to protecting Ashley, her reputation and her pride as best he could until he set things right again in her life.

Matthew angled forward with a long creak of the wheels on the antique leather chair he’d inherited from his father. “I said Ashley and I are engaged and that’s exactly what I mean. We’re going to pick out a ring tomorrow.”

A ring?

Hell yeah.

Of course they would need a ring. If Ashley balked, he would suggest they could sell it afterward and donate the proceeds to her favorite charity. Ashley with all her generous ways would get into a notion like that. He wasn’t actually purchasing any token of commitment, rather protecting Ashley while contributing to a worthy cause.

Brent eyed him narrowly. “Why not give this Ashley Carson woman your mother’s ring from her marriage to your father?”

Good question.

“Ashley wants her own,” he neatly dodged. “As a foster child, she lived her life receiving hand-me-downs from others, rarely getting the chance to choose what suited her best. She deserves to have a ring of her choice and start traditions of her own.”

Yeah, that sounded plausible enough, especially given he’d only had half a second to come up with an answer. As a matter of fact, it actually resonated as true inside him, the decision he would reach if he and Ashley were doing this couple thing for real.

Matthew aligned the stack of bumper stickers. “I imagine the news will leak from someone in the jewelry store, but we’ll still want to make our own official announcement. When do you think is best to call a press conference? Tomorrow night or the next morning?”

“You actually love this woman?” His manager didn’t even bother hiding the jaded tone in his voice.

Love? The word brought to mind the endless times he’d heard his mother crying on the other side of the door after Benjamin Landis’s death. Ginger had been damn near incapacitated. If it hadn’t been for her kids and the surprise offer to take over her husband’s senate seat, Matthew still wasn’t sure how long it would have taken his mother to enter the world of the living again.

He would have chalked it up to emotions growing over a long-term relationship, but he’d felt much the same crippling pain when his fiancée died in college. No way was he going back for round two of that pathway to hell. The possibility of letting anyone have that kind of control over him again scared the crap out of him.

He’d been right to try and end things after their accidental night together. Circumstances, however, had forced them to bide their time before going their separate and diverse ways.

He thought about Ashley, and yeah, she stirred a protectiveness inside him along with that hefty dose of arousal. Just thinking about her naked body tangled in the sheets with her auburn hair splayed over the pillow…

Damn. He wouldn’t be standing up from behind the protective cover of his mahogany desk anytime soon. “I am captivated by her.”

Brent stared him down and Matthew held his gaze without wavering. Finally, his old family friend nodded. “Either you’re a brilliant liar or in more trouble than you realize, my friend.”

The camera flash blinded her.

Ashley blinked to clear the sparks of light as the intense reflection bounced off the marquise-cut diamond on her finger as she stood in front of the podium outside Matthew’s campaign headquarters in Hilton Head.

RICH MAN’S FAKE FIANCEE

14

CATHERINE MANN

SILHOUETTE DESIRE 1878

THE LANDIS BROTHERS

She hadn’t wanted him to spend so much on the ring, but he’d swayed her by telling her the proceeds from hocking the rock afterward would go to the charity of her choice. That he knew her and her wishes so well after such a short time swayed her more than anything.

His campaign manager, Mr. Davis, stepped between them and the microphone. “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the press. That officially concludes our conference for this afternoon.”

Ashley forced a smile on her face as cameras continued to click while Matthew escorted her toward a chauffeur-driven Suburban. The weight of the stone on her hand provided a constant reminder that while she might not be committed to this man, she was committed to her decision to help him with his campaign to beat his scumbag opponent.

She extended her fingers and stared at the brilliant diamond in the shiny gold setting, thought of their night together, followed by his cageyness the next morning.